1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information communication system making information communication between a second station and a first station.
2. Description of the Background Art
A visual telephone system (electronic talking system) using a public telephone line such as an analog line is now coming into wide use. This system transmits/receives a voice signal and an image signal through a communication unit storing a CCD camera or the like when making a call with a telephone set. The system transmits received voice and image signals to a video input terminal of a general television set for reproducing the voice and the image on the television set. This visual telephone system can provide various types of service between a second station (host base station or the like) and a first station (terminal unit or the like) remote from the second station for returning various types of response information for various types of requirement from a user of the first station.
FIG. 16 shows an exemplary visual telephone system (electronic talking system). When a user makes a call with a telephone set 1, this system transmits/receives a voice signal and an image signal through a communication unit 3 storing a CCD camera 2, transmits the received voice and image signals to a video input terminal of a general television set 4 and reproduces the voice and the image with the television set 4. Throughout the specification, the term "video input terminal" includes not only an image input terminal but also a voice input terminal.
The voice and the image can be reproduced on the television set 4 automatically in talking with the telephone set 1 or by inputting a switch on the communication unit 3 with an operation feeling similar to that for reproduction of a video image through a free channel among a plurality of channels for television broadcasting or a video reproduction mode.
The system is connected to the public telephone line through a general modular connector 5 having two or four cores, whereby a visual telephone call can be made in a general office or home with no requirement for specific connection work.
Such an electronic talking system employs a compression/expansion mode according to the visual conference standardization mode (H.324) of ITU (International Telecommunication Union) in relation to communication signals such as the aforementioned voice and image signals. Thus, protocol compatibility of communication signals is preserved between various types of machines, so that excellent bidirectivity can be attained over a wide region.
FIG. 17 schematically illustrates this visual conference standardization mode (H.324). This is a protocol mode formed on the premise of a network interface 11, which is a connection standard with a public telephone line, utilizing a modem 12 of a general standard such as V.34, V.8 or V.8 bis and employing a multimedia multiplex/synchronous (H.223) mode 13 for transmitting a plurality of packets 14 to 17. Four types of packet boxes including system control (H.245) 14, voice coding (G.723.1) 15, video coding (H.263, H.261) 16 and T.120 (V.14, LAPM etc.) 17 for transmitting an auxiliary device signal of depiction data on a white board or the like are defined as these packets 14 to 17, and data are stored in these packets 14 to 17 and transmitted at need. Referring to FIG. 17, numeral 18 denotes a call control domestic standard mode defining timings for making a call and return in signal transmission.
Such an electronic talking system is, for example,
(1) used by a person taking up a post alone without his family, studying abroad or under medical treatment/in hospital for seeing how things are going with/cheering up the family or making contact with a close friend or relation;
(2) used by a person having no hearing for making a telephone call while observing a TV screen;
(3) used in a store or the like for grasping/patrolling/monitoring the situation inside the store;
(4) used for introducing new products or information to customers, business education, information transmission or the like;
(5) used for daily business communication with a person working at home for his company or between domestic and overseas branches or factories, or communication with the head office when on a domestic or overseas business trip;
(6) used for interactive remote education in a cramming school or a language school;
(7) used for private investment consultation between a financial institution and a special customer at home;
(8) used for remote medical care or simple medical examination by interview;
(9) used by an advertising agency or a model agency for presentation, audition or interviewing;
(10) used by a specialist such as a lawyer, a patent attorney or a licensed tax accountant for making arrangements with a client;
(11) used for interactive consultation such as management or employment consultation;
(12) used for video-on-demand (VOD) network expansion in mail-order business or the like; and
(13) used for communication with a country or region retarded in popularization of ISDN (digital) lines.
In particular, this electronic talking system transmitting signals to the video input terminal of the general television set 4 so that the television set 4 reproduces the voice and the image is advantageously easy to get used to as compared with a visual telephone on the Internet employing a personal computer, in such a point that a person unfamiliar with the so-called PC (personal computer) or a high-tech apparatus can readily make a call with a visual telephone.
In an information communication system utilizing a general visual conference system (electronic talking system), however, a terminal user is supplied with only information such as an image of an operator or the operator's voice, and the types of providable information are extremely limited. However, one may wish to make a call not only through conversation with the operator through the image and the voice but also through on-screen display of desired materials such as character information and image information. For example, a person concerned with a cramming school or a consultant may wish to explain the contents of learning or financial charts displayed in real time through the function of the electronic talking system.
When a user requires a prescribed detailed image to an operator, the image may be faxed or an image file may be added to an electronic mail, for example. However, direct recognition of image information on a visual conference system is not performed in general.
Recently information provision service utilizing the Internet is made all over the word. In this case, the user browses a number of contents in a wide-area network such as the World Wide Web (WWW), through which languages described in the HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) form can be displayed on a monitor of a personal computer or the like with a software program called a browser. According to this method, various types of information such as character information data, still picture data, motion picture data, voice data and various types of archive files can be transferred.cndot.provided in a general communication mode called TCP/IP.
Particularly as a method for providing information with no labor in a second station, there is information retrieval service utilizing a prescribed retrieval system employing a computer. In this case, a first station connected through the Internet operates a retrieval system stored in the second station as an application software program, so that the user can browse favorite contents information by inputting a keyword for retrieval in a prescribed input column and selecting, manipulating or converting a desired item in a list of "linkage screens" displayed as a result of the retrieval. When employing the retrieval system using the computer, therefore, desired information can be relatively readily provided to the user with no specific staff. When the quantity of the contents of explanatory materials is large, the so-called hyperlink function may be introduced into the explanatory materials, which in turn are displayed on a screen so that the explainer (transmitter of material information) or the observer (receiver of the material information) can arbitrarily jump to other relevant materials one after another.
However, the conventional system of making a visual telephone call with the aforementioned general television set 4 allows no browsing of WWW contents simultaneously with talking.
There is application software allowing a call similar to a visual telephone call on the Internet through modem connection in the so-called PC. It is technically possible to simultaneously perform such a pseudo-visual telephone call and browsing of WWW contents by performing prescribed setting support on the side of a service provider (ISP: Internet service provider) providing Internet connection service. However, such connection accompanied with manipulation of a mouse or a keyboard of the PC is hard for a person unfamiliar therewith, and may not necessarily be suitable for a cramming school for children or business consultation for elderly proprietors.
While it is also possible to make a visual telephone call with the television set 4 and the communication unit 3 while connecting a PC to the Internet and browsing WWW contents or the like with the PC, the PC must be manipulated and at least two connection routes to the public telephone line are required in this case, to result in a high connection charge or extension of the telephone line as the case may be.
When the user requires information to the operator, processing may be so uniformalized that it is difficult to attain processing suitable to each user depending on the prepared information. In particular, the user generally must repeat similar questions although he has had the same information service a number of times, and it is difficult to provide information service with such a sense that a familiar operator makes conversation with the user.
Further, various types of retrieval service employ a simple method of inputting a prescribed keyword for reaching information required by the user, and hence the results of the retrieval themselves are so enormous that considerable labor is required for reaching desired information in a list of retrieval results. In addition, whether or not the input keyword matches with a keyword previously prepared in the retrieval system depends on the thesaurus. If the keyword input by the user mismatches with the keyword prepared in the retrieval system, therefore, the user cannot reach the desired information.